Hockey’s most scrutinized teenager seeks the quiet life — for now.
Connor Bedard, probably the most hyped NHL prospect since that Connor, was ending up his third season in junior hockey after I visited him in March. His crew, the Regina Pats, is positioned within the broad plains of Saskatchewan, the place the typical winter temperature hovers round 12 levels Fahrenheit. In opposition to this unforgiving backdrop, the 17-year-old Vancouver native spends most of his time on the rink — which is the place he and his teammates additionally take highschool lessons — or at dwelling together with his mom, Melanie, who quickly relocated and rented an house to make sure her son retained some kind of normalcy.
For enjoyable, Bedard and his buddies frequent the hockey taking pictures vary, an indoor facility the place they shoot pucks for a couple of hours. Generally they will go to the mall, the place Bedard stated they just lately swung by the jewellery retailer for chains “simply because. However I promise you it wasn’t something too loopy.”
Bedard tries to remain out of public when he can, and as he gave me a tour in his off-roader SUV, bumping some top-40 music, it grew to become obvious why. When he stopped at a purple gentle, a automobile pulled up with 4 adults who acknowledged Bedard immediately. The driving force honked and waved enthusiastically because the three passengers frantically fiddled with their telephones to take images. Bedard, clearly skilled with this actual situation, politely smiled again.
“There is a little bit of buzz, and for me, it is sort of loopy to see among the issues and folks I have been in comparison with,” Bedard stated. “It is rather a lot completely different getting acknowledged out and about. It is one thing I am getting used to. It is supercool feeling the help. However you recognize … I am nonetheless a child.”
He is understating the thrill.
A winter Pats highway journey drew sellouts at each area, together with the 17,000-seat Saddledome, dwelling of the Calgary Flames. Cliff Mander, a Vancouver-based advertising govt, instructed the International Information that he estimated Bedard introduced in $1.5 million to the Western Hockey League this season.
Simply think about when he really goes professional.
That is the truth into which Bedard is beginning to settle — even when the general public notion would not fairly match how he feels.
“Going out and assembly children, they’re excited and screaming about assembly you, you may sort of make their day or their week,” Bedard stated. “However for me, after I go dwelling and look within the mirror, I do not actually see a well-known particular person. I simply see the identical man I’ve all the time been.”
AS THE PRESUMPTIVE No. 1 decide of the 2023 NHL draft, Bedard will study his skilled destiny Monday evening, when the NHL holds its draft lottery (8 ET, ESPN). Groups throughout the league have been angling for higher odds for practically two years in hopes of touchdown Bedard’s generational expertise.
Bedard, a middle, is listed at 5-foot-10, which is likely to be beneficiant, however nothing about his recreation feels small. He’s as misleading as he’s unpredictable, with a hockey IQ and imaginative and prescient for the sport that may enable him to fully tilt the ice each time he jumps over the boards. However his most elite attribute is his shot.
“It is exceptional to see,” stated Oilers star Connor McDavid, who skated with Bedard a couple of instances over the summer season. “He shoots it so laborious and with such a fast launch.”
Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon was much more blunt: “His launch is without doubt one of the finest on the earth now … at 17.”
The primary time Bedard examine himself within the media was at age 12, when he did an interview with The Hockey Information. “I believed it was fairly cool,” Bedard stated. “All my mates have been displaying me and no matter. However yeah, it is fairly younger.”
At 14, he grew to become the seventh participant ever to earn “distinctive” standing, which allowed him to compete on the highest degree of Canadian Junior Hockey as an underage participant. Wayne Gretzky referred to as to congratulate him.
“I feel it was him,” Bedard stated. “I hope it wasn’t somebody, you recognize, pulling a prank on me.”
By 16, Bedard was the youngest participant in league historical past to attain 50 targets. And if there was any doubt Bedard was atop what NHL evaluators have deemed a particularly deep first-round draft class, he quashed it with a banger of a 2023 world juniors event. Bedard led Canada to a gold medal whereas scoring 23 factors in seven video games, together with a highlight-reel aim in additional time to beat Slovakia within the quarterfinals.
Bedard broke 5 information on the event, topping Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr and Eric Lindros in a number of classes.
“I have been going to that event for greater than 20 years,” one NHL scout instructed ESPN. “And what Connor Bedard did, particularly with the entire consideration and eyes on him, is as spectacular of a person efficiency as you may ever see. The one method I can describe it’s pure dominance.”
The one particular person not gushing about Bedard is Bedard himself. {The teenager} is well-mannered and skilled in coping with the media, following the unwritten guidelines of hockey — thou shalt not speak about thyself — as if they’re scripture. Good luck getting him to confess what the world has already assumed. Each dialog about Bedard’s NHL future contains qualifiers akin to “if I’m fortunate sufficient to get drafted.”
“He would not take as a right what different individuals are saying about him or what he is completed,” Pats coach John Paddock stated. “I’ve by no means heard him speak about being drafted No. 1, although there’s in all probability not an individual who thinks he will not. However he is aware of what he needs to do and the place he needs to go. And it is all enterprise on a regular basis. It is his routine, his habits, that every one shine.”
BEDARD WAS BORN on July 17, 2005, simply 13 days earlier than his childhood idol, Sidney Crosby, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins. He started taking part in hockey at age 4 or 5. “Simply stickhandling and taking pictures,” Bedard stated. “Imagining Sport 7 of the Stanley Cup Last stuff, like every child.”
Bedard additionally performed soccer till he was 12, however then hockey grew to become his full focus. His household discovered to regulate.
“There was one time my sister actually wished to go to Hawaii,” Bedard stated. “I instructed my mother and father I actually did not wish to as a result of we have been going to go for every week, and that is a extremely very long time with out hockey.”
They compromised. “I went to the airport, obtained my ticket, and had a hockey bag,” Bedard stated. “I in all probability regarded like a little bit of an fool after I obtained there, however I obtained to rollerblade and stickhandle across the seawall.”
Bedard stated he will get his work ethic from his father, Tom, a logger in Vancouver.
“He would sort of stand up at 3, 4 within the morning and head to work,” Bedard stated. “It was a three-hour drive, typically 4. And then you definitely’re within the mountain, climbing up there, reducing down bushes. It is a fairly bodily job, and harmful. He tells tales of individuals getting harm. One time he broke his leg logging.”
When Tom Bedard would return dwelling, he’d drive his son to hockey follow. On weekends, it was tournaments.
“Doing all of that, he was in all probability fairly drained,” Bedard stated. “However he all the time had a optimistic angle.”
Essentially the most prescient lesson handed down from father to son: Be the place your ft are.
“He all the time stated to by no means want time away,” Bedard stated. “He was all the time like, ‘Simply take pleasure in proper now and the place you’re proper now, and earlier than you recognize it no matter you’re looking ahead to may have occurred.'”
CONNOR BEDARD IS a scholar of the sport. He says he watches Auston Matthews targets on YouTube, then tries to copy points of his shot. He examines McDavid’s skating, Patrick Kane‘s passing. However Bedard attracts probably the most holistic inspiration from Crosby. Bedard research Crosby’s puck safety and 200-foot recreation on the ice, and watches Crosby’s information conferences and social interactions off the ice.
“[Crosby is] simply unimaginable,” Bedard stated. “You see him with children, you see him with the media, and he by no means actually makes a mistake. He carries himself so properly, all the time. There is a humbleness to him. He would not love speaking about himself. He all the time tries to contain his teammates, contain those who have helped him.”
Which is precisely what Bedard tries to copy.
Bedard stated that if he will get a giant NHL paycheck, he needs to thank his household for his or her help. “I am going to in all probability get my mother one thing,” Bedard stated. “My dream is to repay their home or get them a home. I hope I can do this at some point.”
Even away from the highlight, there are points about Bedard that make him stand out. “It sort of stunned me as a result of it was my first time seeing it,” Pats teammate Tanner Howe stated, “however within the weight room he is all the time doing two or three further reps. That is his factor.”
And there are occasions when Bedard appears similar to a typical teenager. “If you recognize him, he is really a really humorous man,” Pats teammate Alexander Suzdalev stated. “He’ll chirp you on the ice.”
That is echoed by Howe, however out of deference, each gamers say they cannot cite particular examples. “Simply belief me,” Suzdalev stated. “He is obtained quite a lot of good ones.”
Bedard is aware of there are issues he cannot management: the place his NHL profession will start, how others understand him. On the latter, nonetheless, he has some concepts about the place he’d like individuals to start out.
“I imply, you may have your personal opinion on watching me or whatnot,” Bedard stated. “However I simply wish to be seen as somebody that has all the time given it their all and is an effective particular person as a lot as a superb participant.”
